


The Price She Pays

by statler



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-10 08:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3283004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/statler/pseuds/statler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An exploration of life before Hogwarts for Hermione Granger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price She Pays

When Hermione was a girl, her father read her bedtime stories. All of the research he'd done before she was born had said that it was best to talk to babies as though they already understood every word, that talking to children like they were adults helped them to process language more quickly. His natural desire to give his little girl every possible advantage in life therefore led him to skip nursery rhymes and fairy tales and proceed right into the collected stories of Sherlock Holmes, and the epic poems of Vyasa, Hesiod, and Virgil.

As far as her father was concerned, this early exposure to classic literature had the desired effect, and then some. Hermione was every bit as precocious as he could have hoped, and she bubbled over with natural curiosity from day one. She started reading--or at least reciting stories she'd long since memorized--at age 3. When she started school, her own literacy was years ahead of her peers', and, with her firm grasp of language and comprehension, her skills in other areas rapidly advanced beyond her grade level. She was, in every subject, a star pupil.

Unfortunately, Mr. Granger had failed to consider the price Hermione would have to pay for the advantage he'd given her. Namely, Hermione had no friends.

For the first 11 years of her life, Hermione Jane Granger had not one friend. She had her parents, sure, and the elderly woman who'd lived in the next house over since before Hermione was born. And she always liked her teachers. But Hermione couldn't claim a single peer as a friend.

Ultimately, she decided that she didn't need friends. She had books, which were better, because they were interesting, and they didn't plant chewing gum in your hair or tease you for having such big teeth even your dentist parents couldn't fix them.

Yes, books were infinitely better.

So Hermione threw herself into studying, and she took pride in at least having the admiration of her instructors, since she certainly couldn't have the affection of her classmates.


End file.
